The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

Messier 101 Mandala [birth/death of a star]
|| 1/11/2008 || 6:22 pm || Comments Off on Messier 101 Mandala [birth/death of a star] || ||

: saved at 12,000 X 12,000 :
Messier 101 Mandala

It was originally rendered at the normal size (216mp), but I decided to cut the center out and use the circular Mandala layout. Being that its my first use of tessellated space I decided to use an archetype that represents rebirth.

Read more about this project here

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Comparative Front Pages: Washington Post / Philadelphia Inquirer
|| 1/2/2008 || 10:58 pm || Comments Off on Comparative Front Pages: Washington Post / Philadelphia Inquirer || ||

Photograph of the Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer newspapers showing my map Jefferson Mandala

On March 26, 2007, the Philadelphia Inquirer published David Montgomery’s Here Be Dragons article. That morning I received a phone call from one of my best friends who happened to be in Philadelphia on business. He excitedly informed me that one of my maps was on the cover of a section in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I asked him to purchase as many copies as possible and about a month later I picked up the six copies from his house. My housemate let me borrow his camera to take an overhead photograph of the two newspaper articles side by side. When the housemate moved out a few months ago he gave me all of his photographs that he had on his computer and I found this photograph that I had forgotten about. What I found to be the most interesting aspect is the size of the map that was used in Philadelphia, the change of the article’s name, the movement from “Style” to “Health & Science.” I’ve tried to track down other syndications, but so far only the Philadelphia Inquirer has been obtained. The article itself has already been deaccessioned from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s website.

Related In The News Entries:

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Capitol Hill Mandala, draft #2
|| 4/30/2007 || 9:16 am || Comments Off on Capitol Hill Mandala, draft #2 || ||

: rendered at 9,000 X 9,000 :

Read more about this commission & the first draft here. The client wanted more of their house and I hope this version will suffice!

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Capitol Hill Mandala, first draft
|| 4/9/2007 || 3:27 pm || Comments Off on Capitol Hill Mandala, first draft || ||

: rendered at 9,000 X 9,000 :

A couple weeks ago a visitor contacted me about places where she could see my maps printed out. After finding that she ived here in DC, I invited her & her husband over to look at some of the maps I have in my house. After viewing the lot, they really liked the one I made of Park City, Utah and asked if I would make one of their house that looked similar. This is the first draft. I will post the subsequent drafts as they are made….

The development of the tile I used to for this draft is actually something akin to an advancement in my own artistic endeavors. I originally made two tiles to be used- one that featured a diamond and the other featured a 16 sided polygon. I ended up using the 16-sided polygon to surround the house because it looked similar to the centers of the maps I’ve created using the Octagon Quilt Projection. The advancement I speak of is that by using an 16 sided polygon shape and having octagonal symmetry, I, for the first time, have created a unique geometric illusion.

In the Park City map I used a hexagon to outline the house and as one moves their eyes around the map they can see the hexagon rotates in conjunction with the symmetry used in the map. The illusion is that the houses rotate inside of the polygon but the polygon itself does not!

For example, along 45 degree line of symmetry, a hexagon or diamond would be rotated 45 degrees (while still being a hexagon or diamond in shape), however, in this map the polygon does not rotate because the polygon has exactly twice the number of lines of symmetry being employed in the map. Only upon closer inspection can one see that the contents of the polygon rotate along the lines of symmetry, while the polygon itself does not.

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Denver Mandala
|| 2/28/2007 || 11:30 pm || Comments Off on Denver Mandala || ||

: rendered at 10,000 X 10,000 :

Unlike my two most recent maps which were created in Photoshop from a previously made Quilt projection, this map was originally made on July 15, 2005. As I stated about a year ago, I didn’t put it on-line originally because I was unhappy with how it looked. Well times change and so does my taste in what I think looks pleasing….

View the Google Map of downtown Denver, Colorado

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Philly Mandala #2
|| 2/27/2007 || 4:46 pm || Comments Off on Philly Mandala #2 || ||

: saved at 9,000 X 9,000 :
Philly Mandala No.2 by Nikolas Schiller

When processing Philly Quilt #2 for my on-line store I made this derivative map. By taking the original map and keeping only the exact circular center of the map, I was able to easily construct this mandala.

View the Google Map of downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

: detail :

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Houston Mandala
|| 2/24/2007 || 4:18 pm || Comments Off on Houston Mandala || ||

: saved at 9,000 X 9,000 :

Derived from Houston Quilt

When processing Houston Quilt for my on-line store I made this derivative map in Photoshop.

View the Google Map of downtown Houston, Texas

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Bangkok Mandala
|| 11/20/2006 || 12:42 pm || Comments Off on Bangkok Mandala || ||

: rendered at 9,000 X 9,000 :

This map was commissioned for Becky Weber. It is to be given away as a gift.

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Philly Mandala
|| 1/13/2006 || 8:34 am || Comments Off on Philly Mandala || ||

: rendered at 15,000 X 15,000 :
Philly Mandala by Nikolas Schiller

This map uses some of the imagery I discussed in my previous entry. Of note is that this map uses more of the river and creates a very unique design on the bridge.

: detail :

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White House Mandala
|| 10/24/2005 || 7:13 am || Comments Off on White House Mandala || ||

: rendered at 12,000 X 12,000 :

I fixed the lighting problem that plagued my last two renderings and the result is probably one of my favorite mandalas yet (my favorite is still the Ballwin mandala). I was able to fix the lighting issue by pulling the light source farther away from the imagery and then making the light source brighter. The result is more diffusion of the light without the center being bleached out. If you look at the rendering details below, you can see the the center of the rendering is the Ellipse and without realizing it, I made an circle out of the Ellipse :-)

rendering details:

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: